The purpose of this guide is to assist new players of Rift with making the decision as to what souls you should take in the first twenty levels and potentially beyond. Originally, in the first two Beta Events, you were only able to select from three of the eight souls initially. After you progressed through the newbie sequence you were able to select one out of the full eight, and then finally in the culmination of the first world zone, you picked your third soul. This is no longer the case according to Scott Hartsman.
Now we will have access to all the souls initially and more of them. Not only that we will have access to more soul points. Because of this, you will not see any point allocation advice in this guide as we do not know when and how many points we are getting. As many know, not all souls are created equal, and not all of them are balanced yet! So hopefully reading this guide will help players select which souls are the best for soloing content right from the onset so people will not become frustrated by picking unfriendly souls and forced to reroll.
Please remember that all the following information is based off of Beta 2 and may not be 100% accurate for Beta 3.
The Rogue Calling has plenty of utility; not only can the soul dps, it can tank and support a group with off-healing. Of the eight souls in the calling two provide ranged dps (Ranger and Marksman), one gives you the ability to tank (Riftstalker), one offers group support (Bard) and the rest offer melee dps (Saboteur, Assassin, Night Blade and Blade Dancer). Each soul gets what we call “Zero Point Abilities”. These abilities are given to the player just by equipping the soul and not putting any points into it. Since points are a premium early on, this is the building block of many builds. This guide will now break down the Rogue Calling into two categories, solo and group play.
When developing this build there are three factors that come into play; survivability, damage, and sustainability. In order to maintain all three we will use the Bard, Ranger and Blade Dancer souls. We will be using the Ranger for it’s zero point ability to summon a pet, the Bard for the ability called “Motif of Regeneration” and the Blade Dancer for it’s damage and defense. You will want to pick either the Ranger or the Blade Dancer first but if you go Ranger first you will have to respec eventually. This guide suggests that the order should be Blade Dancer, Bard, Ranger.
If you chose the Blade Dancer first, you will want to put your first seven points to get Strike Back where you pick up 5% chance to dodge along the way. Strike Back automatically attacks your opponent if you dodge their attack. Your next twelve points should go into Bard so you unlock the root ability Motif of Regeneration. With your points should be spent in increasing the duration of your motifs, increased health, armor and most especially Power Cord. Once you have twelve points into Bard you can then begin working points back into Blade Dancer so you can unlock False Parry. Your third soul should be the Ranger with zero points in it. This gives you essentially a free pet for additional dps. An alternative choice would be the Assassin for the free poison.
This build gives you a 30 second HOT (Motif of Regeneration), an attack that generates two combo points on a short cooldown (Power Cord), and increased survivability and damage with the Blade Dancer. The Ranger’s Zero Point pet has some tanking abilities that allow you to survive an add or two if need be and it acts as some extra damage.
There are three group builds to consider; the off-healer, the tank, the dps. All three are pretty simple builds that are essentially putting all of your points in a single soul. If you’ve been following this guide, you should already have the Blade Dancer, Bard and the Ranger. In Beta 2 you only had access to three souls in the first 20 levels. Assuming we get at least two more, you will be able to support every build in this guide. If access to additional souls in Beta 3 does not come about, you will have to sacrifice some of your solo ability for group affinity. The two extra souls we will be using are the Riftstalker and the Assassin. Each are able to solo in their own right so don’t be afraid to spec for these builds if you plan on grouping most of the time.
The Off-Healer: This build is all Bard. It’s an easy build to figure out. Grab all the talents that increase your buffing power and the two main talents you will need is Power Cord for the reasons we mentioned before, and the talent that lets your cadence heal your whole group. Cadence is a two second channeled ability that creates three combo points over it’s duration that damages your target and heals your group simultaneously. Your rotation is easy; Cadence and Power Cord give you a full 5 Combo Points and you should be using both of your AOE debuffs, and using Coda of Restoration to heal your group. This is while you’re keeping your Motifs refreshed every 30 seconds. If you find yourself not needing to refresh a debuff or the need to heal your group you can use a damage finisher from another soul. Suggested 0pt souls to use are Ranger for ranged autoattack and ranged finisher and Saboteur for ranged AOE damage.
Notice: Bards can not main heal. As of Beta 2 their healing ability is subpar to other calling’s off healing abilities.
The Tank: All Riftstalker all the time. Use the Assassin for the 0pt poison buff and the Blade Dancer’s 0pt temporary dodge buff. The Riftstalker can tank all instances. In the Riftstalker tree you want to spec for all the endurance and armor increasing talents. There is a buff that increases your armor for 10 seconds after you shift. Use your shifting abilities to maintain this buff as much as possible. Because of this, you will want to spec as far into the tree until you get to the talent that reduces the cooldown of all your plane shifting abilities. Your rotation should include using Planar Strike which is a heavy threat creator and Phantom Blow that provides a damage reduction buff. You have several finishers that increase armor and absorption, use them in your rotation.
If you find yourself with extra points put them into the Blade Dancer tree for Strike Back and increased dodge. An alternative to that is substituting the Assassin soul for the Bard soul for the armor buff and increased health in the first tier of talents.
Do the Deeps, Like a Boss: The Blade Dancer is a valid dps soul. Instead of speccing into dodge and Strike Back, use your points to increase your hit chance and buff the damage of your Keen Strike and Quick Strike. A Blade Dancer also has a few talents that augment your energy regeneration and costs. This will prevent you, in most cases, from becoming energy starved. With the full compliment of points at level 20 you will be alternating between Quick Strike and Precision Strike. The latter is a two combo point generating ability on a cooldown.
Without knowing how many soul points a player will have at level 20, it is difficult to assess other souls in a dps build. Secondary options include the Ranger for the 0pt Pet, and the Assassin for the 0pt poison. If you have points to spare, points in Riftstalker are beneficial for increased Attack Power and Annihilate, which is a finisher that gives the player a temporary attack power buff. Another option is the Assassin if you have additional points. As we’ll explain in the next paragraph the Assassin soul gives the player buffs to physical damage and access to another two combo point building ability in Puncture.
An alternative dps build is the Assassin Soul. If you go up the left hand side of the tree, you’ll notice increases to critical attacks and bleeds. You’ll also want to make sure you pick up Puncture which is your only two-combo point generating ability. You can then spend additional points in buffing Savage Strike and Final Blow as well as increasing damage if you are behind your target. If you plan on spending the bulk of your points in the Assassin soul, make sure you spend enough to unlock Leeching Poison which helps alleviate energy starvation.
Additional souls to use with the Assassin build are the Riftstalker for the same reason as explained above. If you have extra points, five points in Night Blade for energy return on finishers goes a long way. Again the Ranger 0pt pet is always free dps if you can keep the pet alive.
NOTICE: The 0pt Ranger Pet has abilities that generate additional threat, keep your pet on a short leash.
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